Reign of Demons
by CarmineRed
Summary: Set in an alternate universe of SMT IV, there is a boy named Kain who is living his life out in demon filled Tokyo until one day he meets a specific demon and contracts with it. (Language and sexual themes are present, if you get offended by them and/or some views the characters may or may not express, that is not my fault.)
1. Chapter 1: Right of Initiation

Reign of Demons

Chapter 1: Right of Initiation

The room was dark, the only light emanating from the three orbs in front of the rooms inhabitants.

"It's time." a voice said.

"Is it now?" a female voice responded.

"Have you all chosen your Champions?" another voice hissed from behind.

"We have." the first voice said.

"Then we shall begin the Right." the hissing voice said.

The three figures held their hands out in front of them, thumb tips and index fingers touching. They each stared through the triangles made by their hands into their orbs.

"We are ready to give the powers of Us to the mortals chosen as Champion, so long as the Right is completed." the voices said in unison. The orbs glowed brighter, and faces slowly crept into focus on them.

"We grant these three mortals the power of influence" the first voice said.

"We grant these three mortals the power of strength" the second voice said.

"We grant these three mortals the power of iron will" the third voice hissed.

"These humans shall change the world" they said in unison.

The orbs grew brighter, the images clearing up more. A man. A woman. An old man. Now was my time to act. As an observer, I normally cannot do anything. During this part of the ritual however, I am able to channel a portion of my power.

"_Mine will is strong as the Unbreakable Wall_." I murmured, quiet enough to have my voice hidden from Them. _"I give the boon of destruction and creation to thine soul, and intertwine it with mine own._" a small breeze picked up. "_I cast away these chains that bind me! Quell the powers seeking to usurp the order of the world, and be sealed in the flesh of a human! Scatter and burst, flames of humanity_!" The breeze grew stronger, and a new orb was created inside the room. I used my power to blacken it's light so that the Three didn't notice.

"_Good luck my Champion_." I whispered. "_Good luck, Kain. May she find you before all is lost_."

* * *

Kain Sutherland

23:00

Kasumigaseki District

* * *

God dammit, why now of all times?! I was minding my own business above ground when this damned demon appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill me. From memory, it was a Bifrons. The only reason why I remember that is because they look really classy in that fancy suit of theirs. Classiness aside, this one was trying to kill me, so I ran away like a little bitch. I made my way through the streets of Kasumigaseki trying to ditch the thing, but it was very persistent. I ran through a back alley and saw a hole in the wall of an old building, so I dove through it and hid in a corner. Dammit, why was I so weak? I know that there are some Hunters who can kill those things in one hit, so why can't I even try to stand up to it and fight it?

I heard it run past, and I waited for it's footsteps to disappear. I looked around the room for anything that I could use as a weapon in case it came back. The room was cluttered with detritus, not much in here other than broken furniture. I saw a table overturned on it's side and a leathery looking thing sticking out from behind it. A whip maybe? If so, that'd be useful. I walked over and pulled on it, and it felt kind of slimy and cool to the touch. There was a yelp of pain, and I looked to where the noise came from. Attached to the end of the whip (It was really a snake tail) was a demon who was quite stunning actually. Sure, she had a snake tail, the legs of a bird, a bat wing on one arm and scales covering half of her body, but she was wearing very revealing clothing... and by clothing, I mean a raggedy old scarf covering her chest and groin area. I took in all this before my mind registered that she too was a demon, and that she would probably kill me and eat me for dinner. It was too late to run, so I did the only thing that I thought of at the time. I got down on hands and knees and begged for mercy.

"Please don't eat me ma'am!" I said, cowering on the ground. There was a pause.

"No worries." she said, her voice surprisingly pleasant and playful. "I would like you to let go of my tail though."

"Wah!" I exclaimed. Crap! I had totally forgotten! "I'm sorry!" I said, quickly dropping her tail. She laughed.

"Calm down young one." she said. "Calm down and tell me your name. And please do sit like a normal human being, it's quite hard to hold a conversation with someone who I can only see the back of their head." she patted the ground next to her, inviting me to sit there.

I sat up and moved next to her. To be honest, I was terrified because she was a demon, but I was too afraid to deny her and run. "Kain." I said. "My name's Kain."

"Kain huh?" she said. Her eyes flashed for a moment and she smiled. "I am a Vouivre, but for the sake of differentiating me from all the other ones, you may call my Gwyn."

"Gwyn? Any reason why?" I asked.

"That is what my previous human friend called me. I honestly don't know why myself though." she said. I noticed that she was holding her side with her human arm. Underneath her hand, I saw a red stain.

"Why are you bleeding?" I asked her.

"Oh, you know." she said. "I got into a fight with another demon and ended up running away and hiding. Just like you I might add." she smiled and looked at me.

I blushed and looked away. "At least you can defend yourself." I said. "I can't even do that. All I can do is run."

There was a pause for a moment. "Then how about we team up?" Gwyn offered.

"Eh? Team up?" I asked, looking at her with a confused look. That'd mean that I'd be a Hunter. Or something close to it at least. A demon tamer I guess.

"Why not? I can fight, you can't. You can heal me when I get injured and I can teach you a bit of how to fight. A fair trade, no?" she said, holding out her hand for a hand shake. She did have a point.

"Why not?" I said. I held out my hand and shook hers. A light emanated from our clasped hands, and scorching heat went through my arm. I opened my mouth to scream, but she held her scaly wing finger thingy to my mouth to quiet me. I looked at her, and she smiled. This bitch! She was going to kill me after all that?! Dammit, I should never have trusted a demon! All of a sudden, the pain was gone and my hand shot out of hers. I stared at my palm. A symbol of chains wrapped around something had been burned into my left hand.

"What the hell is this?!" I demanded. She was frozen, her green eyes glazed over with some sort of milky membrane. She snapped back into focus and her eyes changed to a pitch black.

_You have made contact. _A voice said inside my head. What the hell are you?!

_I am the one who has chosen you as my Champion. _Champion? What the hell?

_I'm afraid that I cannot explain this here, for my powers are going to be limited again quite soon. I need you listen to me. You must find three others. You will know who they are. Find them, and kill them._

Why should I do that? It's not like I hadn't killed before, but that was in self defense, not in cold blood.

_I beg of you. It is for the sake of the world. First, you must complete the Right. Good bye Kain. Good bye, and good luck. _

The voice faded away and Gwyn returned to her milky eyed state. There was a flash of light so bright that I flinched and fell backwards.

"What the hell is going on?" I said, rubbing my eyes. Once my vision mostly returned, I sat up and looked around for Gwyn. Instead, I saw the skull of the Bifrons that was chasing me.

"Shit, Gwyn! Help me out here!" I shouted, scrambling to my feet. I looked around for her, and saw a shape collapsed against the table. It was Gwyn alright, however she looked... human. I had read up about some demons earlier, and Vouivres could take the appearance of beautiful women. Beautiful was not the correct word to describe her at this moment. She was gorgeous. Her skin was a pale white color, her long hair had turned blonde. She was still really skinny and I could see her ribs, but it seemed that she had a bit more fat than skin now, so it was less noticeable. Her breasts were also more noticeable now that she didn't have scales covering one of them. I could get used to the strip of cloth look. She started to stir, as if waking up. She sat up and stared at herself. She flexed the fingers on her one hand that had used to be a dragon wing, and experimentally groped her right breast, which had been covered partially by scales before.

"Huh." she said after a pause. "I seem to be entirely human."

"You don't say!" I said. "Now, can you help me a bit here? This thing is trying to kill me!"

"I see that thou hast a demon contracted with thou now." the Bifrons said. "Mayst thou provide a worthy challenge then!" he said, brandishing his candle holder at me.

"Tch." Gwyn seemed to be useless at the moment, due to her prodding herself in places that normally I would love to sit and watch her, but there was a skull man trying to kill me. My eyes twitched from side to side, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. I saw a pair of old biker gloves that had short metal plates covering the knuckles. Great, I could beat the shit out of it.

"Are thou scared little boy?" the Bifrons jeered. "Wouldst thou like me to burn thee with my flames and let you die quickly or slowly?"

I circled the Bifrons. "Depends, do you like your meat rare or well done?" I asked.

"I am not familiar with these terms you speak of." it said.

"Then screw you!" I said, lunging at it, fists raised. It held the candles in front of it's mouth, launching a stream of fire at me. I hopped backwards. My feint had worked! I rushed over to the gloves and threw them on, regaining my stance and turning towards it again.

"Hah! Thy petty tricks get you nowhere! If you cannot hit me, then thy weapon is useless!" it said, spewing more flames at me. I dodged out of the way and rushed towards it.

"Die!" I shouted, punching it in the face with my steel plated knuckles. The skull cracked a little and the demon laughed.

"Thy strength cannot compare to that of a demons! Begone from this Earth!" it said. It pulled out a small orb and threw it in the air. "Megido!" A blast of almighty energy tore through the area, reducing all the detritus in the room to rubble. I flew back from the impact of the blast, and crashed against a wall. I coughed up blood and slumped to the floor. Dammit, am I going to die here? No, impossible! I can't die like this! The mark on my palm burned white hot for a moment

_Power of Strength. _I must fight on! Strength coursed through my body.

_Power of Iron Will. _I refuse to die here! I will fight for my life! My resolve strengthened my fist.

_Power of Influence. _I will change this world in the way I see fit! My focus increased my reaction time.

"I can't die here..." I said, getting up. "I have too much to live for!"

The Bifrons yelled something at me. What that was, I'm not quite sure because I went into a hyper-focused state. My vision zoomed in on the weak points on his skull. I dashed forward and readied my fist. It blew fire at me, but I jumped over the burst and landed in front of the Bifrons.

"Hey there." I said. "Why don't you go back to whatever hell you came from?" My fist made contact with his skull, and it shattered into pieces. It's body burst into flame, and disappeared without a trace.

"Nice job." a voice said from behind me. I turned around and saw a Hunter woman with long blonde hair walking through the hole in the wall. "I had heard that there was a demon chasing a young boy around, but I didn't expect the demon to be dead when I got here. Name's Nozomi by the way. Nice t' meetcha!" she said, holding her hand out.

"Ah." I said, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you too. My name's Kain."

"Now that formalities are out of the way." she said, gesturing to Gwyn. "Who is that, and why is she practically naked?" I turned towards Gwyn, who had evidently stopped poking herself at some point in the fight and had watched me kill the thing.

"That. Oh, her name's Gwyn." I said. "Why she's dressed like that... I'm not so sure." Nozomi laughed.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you'd have sexually assaulted her or something." she said, walking over to Gwyn and offering her a hand up.

"'If you didn't know any better?'" I repeated. Nozomi laughed again.

"Trade secret." she said. Riiiiiiiight. Gwyn grabbed Nozomi's hand and pulled herself up. One thing however, didn't go up with her. Gwyn's rag scarf thing had slid down, and her body was bare before us. I blushed and looked away.

"Wow." Nozomi said. "You have nice boobs."

"That's all you can say?!" I said, looking at Nozomi in disbelief. I turned away moments later because Gwyn was still naked next to Nozomi.

"Hey, women can compliment each other on their physical features just the same as men. Although, aren't you embarrassed to be seen naked by a man?" she asked Gwyn.

"Not really." Gwyn replied. "I don't really care too much." Nozomi and I let out a sound of disbelief.

"Well, you still need to wear something." Nozomi said. "Kain, give her your coat." Oh yeah. I had almost forgotten that I was wearing a trench coat over my shirt. I almost never wear anything else, so I normally just forget what I'm wearing. I quickly slid off the coat and passed it to Gwyn, who put it on loosely, so that it hid about half of each breast.

"Umm... Gwyn? You'll need to cover up a liiiiiitle more than that." Nozomi said. "Here, let me do it for you." she said after Gwyn gave her a questioning look. Due to there only being a single button on the thing, Nozomi had to make a few clothing sacrifices of her own to make it so that Gwyn was properly covered up, as with the coat buttoned up hid most of her chest, although her legs and hips were still completely exposed. After that was over she at least looked presentable, albeit if I saw her walking around alone I'd have thought that she was a prostitute. Regardless, Nozomi said that she'd escort us to the Counter Demon Force base and let us use the Terminal there to teleport to Ueno.

"I thought that no one could get into the Terminal rooms?" I asked. It was true, last I heard whenever someone entered they never came out alive. Some demon had set up a Domain or something to keep people out.

"That's what I thought too, but apparently there's this really strong guy who's clearing out the Domains and opening up the Terminals, so why not use them?" she said. "Anyways, let's get going shall we?"

Gwyn and I nodded our heads and walked out of the building with Nozomi leading the way. Little did we know that this was the first step in an adventure that would be a major waypoint in human history.

* * *

Hey there everyone! It's Carmine, the guy who's writing "A Future of Darkness." For those of you who don't know, it's a Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic, with the same sort of pretense as this one: It takes place in the same world, but it doesn't have too many characters from the game in it (mainly because I suck at keeping characters that I don't create in character, I really don't know why). Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this first chapter out of (hopefully) many more, and I probably won't be pumping out chapters too quickly, due to 1: writing another ongoing fanfic series (dur) and stuff going on irl that may or may not prevent me from writing for quite some time. Anyways, it's late so I'm just gonna publish this and call it a night.

-Carmine


	2. Chapter 2: Martial Law

Reign of Demons

Chapter 2: Martial Law

"Have the Champions made contact?" a voice asked.

"They have met their demons." a female voice replied.

"Gooooooooood..." a third voice hissed.

"Abnormalities?" the first voice asked.

"None." the last two said.

_Incorrect_. _I am the abnormality_. I laughed softly to myself. Foolish beings! May your plan crumble to dust before it's completion!

_The wild card is set. Let the game begin!_

* * *

Kain Sutherland

23:45

Counter Demon Force Base

* * *

Nozomi had led us through a series of streets and side paths to a run down building. Not that any building was in super good standing, but this was more run down most. Somehow, the elevator door still opened automatically, which was pretty nice. We went down the elevator before any demons noticed us, and we descended into the darkness of the unknown. Well, at least it was unknown to me, I'm not so sure of Nozomi or Gwyn, but I wouldn't doubt if it was a new sight to the latter, as she gazed around the space curiously.

"Alright kid, I'll tell you how to operate the Terminal and get you across to Ueno. After that, get the lady here some real clothes and do what you've been doing this whole time." Nozomi said.

"I'm not a kid! I'm eighteen!" I protested.

"You sure act like one though." she said, smirking at me. Well, she had a point.

"Fine fine, you have a point." I replied, shuffling my feet around and looking away.

"Good." she said. The elevator door pinged open, and we were immediately assaulted by an ugly looking bird woman. Nozomi drew her sword and slashed at the thing. It screeched and flinched backwards, and in that instant Nozomi rushed through the elevator opening and skewered it through the chest. It let out one final squwak and lay limp on Nozomi's sword.

"Wow, you're really good at this." Gwyn said, eyeing Nozomi's handiwork with interest. "Much better than that guy." she gestured to me.

"Hey, I'm no Hunter. If I see a demon, then I run." I said, offended.

"If you're no Hunter, than why are you wandering around above ground? You know how dangerous that can be." Nozomi asked, yanking her blade out of the demon and sheathing it.

"It gets really boring below ground though. Besides, I like the air up here." I answered.

Both Gwyn and Nozomi shot me a look. "To each their own, I guess." Nozomi said. "Here, this way."

She took us down a hallway and another elevator. We descended that one as well, and as the doors opened, I saw a large room, empty of all life. Except for the occasional demon that is. Somehow, the demons hadn't noticed us yet, to Nozomi mouthed at me to take the one closest to us: another one of the bird women. I redied my fists and dashed at the unsuspecting bird lady (who I later found out was a Strix) and right hooked her temple. She let out a squawk of surprise, then a screech of anger.

"You dare – !" she started, but I punched her again with an uppercut with my left fist this time. She screeched with rage, and came at me with claws at the ready. She hit me with her wing, and my vision turned to a mass of black feathers and vicious claws. I fell backwards, my shoulder flaring up with a stinging pain as her clawed hands tore at my flesh.

"Damn... you!" I said under the assault. I reached behind me for anything that I could use as a weapon and found a shard of glass. I grasped it, and as the Strix's assault slowed, I took the chance and stabbed the glass shard into her eye. She screeched again, flapping away. I stood up and brushed myself off, getting back into a fighting stance. The Strix glared needles at me, and I grinned at it.

"Come at me!" I said, dashing towards it with my fist raised. I was about to land another hit on it when –

"Zionga." CRASH! There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, and the Strix lay dead on the floor. I looked around for what caused the bolt of lightning, and saw Gwyn standing there, her hand smoking.

"Gwyn?" I asked. "Did –"

"You're a mage?" Nozomi asked, finishing up with the last of the demons. It made me feel a little pathetic, having taken so much damage from only one and Nozomi killing about five more seemingly without breaking a sweat.

"It seems that way." Gwyn said, staring at her hand with interest.

"Are mages rare?" I asked Nozomi, wincing in pain from my shoulder.

"Pure mage types are rarer than others. Most Hunters opt for using a gun or close combat themselves, however there's the occasional Hunter who's more versed with magic and prefers that to guns and swords." Nozomi explained. "There are a few master Hunters who mix it up with whatever the situation requires."

"I see. Can you use magic, Nozomi?" I asked her.

She grinned sheepishly. "Well, I can use a little bit, but not too much." she looked over at me and noticed my bleeding shoulder. "Oh my god, that looks painful! Here, lie down." she ordered, pushing me down. "Gwyn, look through these rooms for a first aid kit or something." Gwyn nodded and then left into one of the other rooms. She came back a few moments later with a strange assortment of items:

A broken watch, a strange looking uniform, a handgun with multiple clips of ammo, some bandages, and a rubber duck.

"Why is there a rubber duck here?" I asked.

"I'm not going to question that." Nozomi replied. She grabbed the bandages from Gwyn and told her to go and change into that uniform. When she started to strip in front of us, Nozomi pushed her into another room and told her to do it in there.

"Sorry about that, Kain." She said. "Although I bet you like hanging around with her. A lot of service, right?"

"I'm going to refuse to answer you, and you're not going to object." I replied.

"Oh c'mon, I'm just teasing a little!" she said, looking over the injury quickly again. "That's deeper than I thought. All I can do for now is wrap it up, but when we get to Ueno you're gonna have to buy some medicine to stave off infection." she said.

"Good thing I know someone who used to be a nurse in Ueno." I said.

"You do? Isn't that great. Now, strip!" she ordered. Wait, what?

"What the hell did you just say?" I asked.

"I need you to take off your shirt so that I can wrap up your wound, dummy. Now hurry up before you bleed out." she said, looking at me like I was an idiot.

"Fine fine, be patient." I said. She did have a point though, I was getting a little light headed. I took off my shirt, and looked over at my shoulder. It looked much worse than it did with my shirt on. The flesh was ragged and torn, with little bits of meat barely hanging on by threads.

"That looks nasty." Nozomi said, beginning to wrap the would up.

My face turned a pale shade of green. "Yeah, I'm gonna look away now before I barf."

"Great, now you're making me feel queasy." she replied, finishing the wrap. "There. Now you just need to get... well, you need to get proper medical treatment."

I stood up and rolled my shoulder around. It hurt, but not as badly as before. Thankfully the bandaging had stopped most of the bleeding, and I could move it around normally. There was a sound behind me, and I turned around. Gwyn had exited the room she was in, and she looked... better than before. The uniform fit her well, however the black color scheme contrasted her pale skin and light hair.

"You look stunning." Nozomi said. I stared at her with a blank expression.

"Are you a lesbian?" I asked her. That earned me a slap on the head.

"No I'm not you idiot. Besides, you were thinking it too."

"That you're a lesbian?"

SMACK

"OWW!"

"You deserved that."

"Yes I did."

"Umm... is there something wrong?" Gwyn asked, gazing at the two of us.

"Nothing." I said.

"Him." Nozomi said at the same time. We glanced at each other and laughed.

"Anyways, we should head to Ueno." I said, picking up the gun and ammo clips, and stuffing them in my pockets. "Where's my coat by the way?"

Gwyn held it out to me. "Here." she said, tossing it towards me. I caught it and put it on, making it look as dramatic as possible.

"Thanks for that. I really missed this thing."

"It was only away from you for twenty minutes." Nozomi noted. "Do you like it that much?"

"Why yes, yes I do." I replied, habitually tugging on the collar of the coat. "I got it a few years ago as a gift, and I've treasured it ever since."

"Was it from a girl?" Nozomi asked. My face turned a shade of red and I turned away. "So that's a yes."

"Yeah yeah, make fun of me for it why don't ya." I said. "Look, we should really get to Ueno before demons re-spawn here." Gwyn nodded.

"I think that it would be in our best interests to hurry and heal Kain as soon as possible." she said, turning to face a set of large metal doors. "Is that the Terminal room?" she asked, pointing to it.

Nozomi gave a surprised look. "Yeah, all Terminal rooms have doors like that." she said. She stood up and opened the doors to a large room with a raised platform in the center of it. There was a tablet like screen on one side with various information on it. "I actually have some stuff left to do here, so I'll just set the coordinates for the Ueno terminal, then send you off on your way. Alright?"

"Sounds good." I said. "Work your magic." She started up the stairs to the Terminal itself, and bent over to type on the screen that was at about waist height.

"You like what you see down there?" she asked in a teasing voice.

"Shut up!" I said. To be honest though, I did have a pretty good view... I mentally kicked myself. No no, stop that Kain. Keep your mind out of the gutter. But she _does _have a nice ass...

"What does she mean?" Gwyn asked, cocking her head to the side with a curious look.

"I'm going to refuse to answer you there, Gwyn." I replied. I could almost see the question marks hovering around her head.

"Alright, I'm done." Nozomi said after a moment or two. She walked down the stairs and handed me a rectangular box. "A parting gift."

I turned the smartphone over in my hands. These things are really rare! "How'd you get this thing?" I asked her.

"Oh, a Hunter like me gets around. We find things and pick them up regardless of use or not. Some things that we find can be really valuable, actually. I've made quite a bit of macca by just finding and selling some stuff." she answered.

"How much can you make?" I asked, sliding the smartphone into my pocket and patting it. My pockets were filled to the brim now with the gun and ammo, and now this? The weight made me shift around uncomfortably.

"Oh, depends on how long it's been since I've last visited a shop. On a normal run though, it's about twenty to thirty grand." she replied, stretching. "Well, I gotta go kid. The Terminal's all set up, so just step on the platform and push the big red button. See ya later!" she turned and walked away, waving her hand.

"Bye Nozomi! See you!" I said, waving back. She stepped into the elevator and winked at me. I stuck my tongue out at her. The elevator doors closed, and Gwyn and I were left in silence.

"What was that all about?" Gwyn asked again.

"Oh, casual human interaction between someone who knows how to tease someone and the one being teased." I replied. "In other words, she was making fun of me and I did nothing about it."

"Isn't that a bad thing?" she asked. "I thought that being made fun of was a bad thing."

"One of the many complexities of human life. Teasing between friends, if you can call us friends after one short encounter (which I think we can, but still), is socially acceptable." I explained.

"I... see." she said, still looking a bit lost at my explanation.

"Don't worry too much about it." I said, ruffling her hair. It was soft and light, and surprisingly not too greasy. I guess demon's don't get bad hair easily. Or she just had a bath or shower or something recently. "Shall we get going?"

She nodded. "Mhm."

We ascended the stairs and stepped onto the platform. "You ready?" I asked, my finger hovering over the big red button. She nodded again. I moved to press the button, but stopped as my finger touched the surface of it.

"What's wrong?" Gwyn asked.

"I guess I'm a little nervous." I said. "This whole 'matter transportation device' seems a little sketchy to me. But if so many other people have done it... well, why not?" I moved to press it again, but stopped once more. I swore under my breath, and mentally kicked myself again. Dammit, what am I afraid of?

"Do you need help?" she asked with a curious look on her face. I nodded.

"Yeah, for some reason I can't push this damned button. Sorry." I said.

"There's no need to be sorry." she said. "Here." She grasped my hand in her own, her index finger on top of mine. She guided our hands to the button once more. "Are you ready?" she asked. I let out a short laugh.

"Yeah." She pushed the button. The room lit up with a yellow light, and my body felt like it was dissolving and being relocated. It's... hard to explain if you haven't experienced it for yourself. Just imagine you in the center of a square. That square then opens up a hole just large enough to fit your feet in, and it moves up your body, growing wider to accommodate you. Then, imagine that the parts of you that you can no longer see, are being moved to a different location. You can still feel your body, but it's not there. That explanation was pretty bad now that I think about it, but I'm not too good at putting things into words. Once our bodies were transported to the Ueno Terminal, Gwyn let go of my hand.

"So. This is Ueno." I said.

"It seems so." Gwyn responded. "Although the room looks the same."

"Yeah. I guess we should leave and try to find my friend in here, then get this better." I said, pointing to my shoulder. She nodded and stood behind me. _Lead the way _was what she was telling me. I walked down the stairs and opened the door.

"Hey there." I said into the passage. "Does anyone know where –" I started, but was cut off by a gun pointed at my chest.

"Hands where we can see 'em!" the military looking person shouted. He had a ragged scar running down his left cheek, and he looked very muscular and intimidating. "You too missy!" he pointed the gun threateningly at Gwyn. She looked at me with a calm, but curious expression. I slowly raised my hands, and she did the same.

"Good." the guy said. "Now, until we find out who let the demon in here, none of you are getting out. That goes for you two, too." he said, turning and raising his voice to be heard by everyone else in the room.

"I'm sorry sir, but we just got here –" I started, but was cut off by him again.

"Shut up you miserable ingrate! Some asshole led a demon into our underground district through the Terminal, which leads you two to be prime suspects. We have reason to suspect that the demon still resides here in human form!" he gestured to a bunch of other military looking people in the room. "This place is under martial law. Get used to it, kiddo!"

* * *

Hey everyone, it's Carmine again. I can't believe that I wrote another chapter in two days! It really should have been out yesterday, but I had just found my 3DS (yeah, I lost it. On my bookshelf no less.) Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoy the chapter. When I wrote that last line, the scene from the first Pirate of the Caribbean movie where Barbosa was first revealed to be a creepy skeleton thingy was playing in my head. Not that it matters, but useless information is something that I pride myself in knowing something about, especially when it comes to some books and movies. Mainly books though. Well, I've gone on a long enough tangent, and I need to head to bed because work. Well, happy reading everyone, and don't expect another release too soon! (I need to work on my other fanfic too _)

-Carmine


	3. Chapter 3: Crown of Thorns Pt 1

Reign of Demons

Chapter 3: Crown of Thorns pt 1

_Connection Steady. _

_Vitals: Check_

_Stress Level: Mild_

_Damger Level: High_

_Proceeding with overview of subject 04 KAIN SUTHERLAND_

_Overview Start_

_=Good luck, Kain.=_

* * *

"So, what's all going on again?" I asked the woman next to me. After the military wannabes (as I had come to calling them) had sent me and Gwyn against a wall, they had basically bickered amongst themselves for a good ten minutes, getting nowhere with this situation.

The woman, Akari, answered me with a quiet voice mixed with fear, not wanting the military wannabes to hear. "About three hours ago, there was a Demon sighted in the Ueno district. It disappeared, and so these guys get excited and call a lockdown of the area, forcing everyone to stay in sight of someone with a gun at all times until they can 'find who the demon is.' These crazy bastards think that the demon can transform into a human or something!" she scoffed, quickly turning it into a cough to avoid the suspicion of the military people.

"To be quite honest, there are demons that can change into a human form. I don't think that there are any in this area though, otherwise we'd be screwed." I told her. I had no idea about the last part, but hey, what's the use in scaring the poor lady? She nodded and turned away, not wanting to draw attention to her. I move around through the crowd of about two to three hundred people, asking around for information. I drag Gwyn along with me so that we don't get separated: these people are looking for a demon, and if they find one it'll be murder. As I ask around, I find less and less people willing to answer, and all I get is what Akari told me. No one knows what kind of Demon it is, and some claim that there isn't a Demon in the first place. I find a place to sit with Gwyn, and I bounce ideas off of her. Part of me believed that there's a Demon here, but reason said otherwise.

"Hey Gwyn? Can you sense other Demons?" I ask in a low voice. Whispers draw attention, hushed voices don't.

"I can, if I know where too look. Mostly others of my own kind though." she said back, keeping a lowered voice as well. I'm not sure if she knew why, or if she was just following my example. Either way, it was fine.

"Can you try to sense one in this area?"

"If it's within this group, it should be easy." she replied, closing her eyes. She tensed suddenly, and opened them.

"He knows." she said.

"Who knows what?"

"The Demon. He knows that I tried to sense him and cut me off. I think that he was able to tell who I am."

Well shit. I got up and grabbed Gwyn's hand, moving to the middle of the crowd. "Just stay blended in." I said to her. "I'll do... something. By the way, do you know who it is?" I asked.

"One of the people with guns." she answered.

"Thanks." I said, walking over to a random person, Gwyn giving me a confused look.

"Hey, these 'military people' are utter shit, agreed?" I said to him. "Wanna break out of here with me and some other people?" He shook his head, a look of terror on his face.

"WHAT WAS THAT, YOU PRICK?!" an angry voice shouted over the dull noise of everyone talking. There was a long silence. "I SAID, WHAT. DID. YOU. SAY?!" one of the wannabe's came over to me, and pushed me into a wall. It was the same guy who'd pointed his gun at myself and Gwyn earlier. "Answer me, or I'll put a bullet through your skull." he said, shoving the gun barrel into my temple.

"I said that you were utter shit." I replied steadily.

"And what makes you say that, fucking asshole?"

"That's probably what you like doing." I said. Juvenile, I know, but it got the job done. I saw a vein in his head pop, and he roared at me.

"Do you all hear this?! This piece of shit thinks that he's better than us." I honestly don't know where he pulled that from, but whatever works.

"No, I just think that I'm better than you." I said. "Although you could put it that way. It seems to me that you're the leader here, and that makes you better than your other wannabe's, which means that I do think that I'm better than you all." I smiled at him, which seemed to piss him off even more. I saw an animalistic glare in his eyes. Literally, his eyes turned into that of an animal, complete with slitted pupils. I smiled wider. Bingo. This one here's the Demon that infiltrated.

"How the fuck would a kid like you be better than me?! I can beat you into the ground any day!" to prove his point, he slammed me into the wall harder, leaving a small crack behind me. My lungs emptied of air, and I gasped for air when he dropped me to the ground. "See?!" he said to the crowd, turning to face them. I felt a blast of cold air on my skin, and I started to shiver.

"Who are you trying to prove yourself to? No one really cares about you." I said, standing shakily, my breath coming out in puffs. He whipped around, throwing his fist with such strength that would probably kill me if I got hit by it. I dodged to the side, and his fist collided with the wall. It went through and was stuck. I laughed.

"Who's better than who now, Demon?" I said, smiling at him. His eyes widened for a moment, and was about to say something. The crowd gasped as I shoved my thumb into his eye. He roared an apelike roar, growing and changing into a snowman. It certainly wasn't any Frosty, but the description "snow man" was about as accurate as I could get. He had several antler like things on his head, which looked sharp and very deadly. His arms were large and apelike, and he stood taller than me at about seven or so feet. An aura of cold washed through the area, everyone shivering.

"Stand back!" I shouted to the crowd. They didn't need to be told again, and they ran as far from here as possible without leaving the underground. Only the military people stayed, aiming their guns at the ice giant. Gwyn stayed, standing behind me and beginning to cast a fire spell.

"Agilao." she said, holding her hand out and shooting a ball of flame. It hit, the giant roaring in pain. "Wendigo. So nice to meet you again." she said, wreathing her hand in fire.

"WHO YOU?" he asked, a chunk of the flesh on his arm smoldering.

"You don't recognize me?" she asked, returning to her original form. Her wing burst out of the sleeve that her right arm was in, tearing it to shreds. I was a little sad because it looked like quite expensive fabric.

"YOU!" the Wendigo said, apparently recognizing Gwyn. "YOU'RE THE BITCH WHO GAVE ME THIS SCAR!" He pointed to the scar with his not-burnt hand. I started to clap, and he shot me an angry look. "WHY ARE YOU CLAPPING, YOU SHITHEAD?!"

"Losing your temper gives you better grammar." I said. He lunged at me, and one of the military people shot him with his gun. Wendigo roared and grabbed the guy, tearing him in half and eating his upper half. The guy's guts spilled everywhere, and blood poured out of him like a fountain. A torrent of blood shot at me, and I got sprayed in the face with metallic tasting liquid. "God damn." I said, wiping it out of my eyes. "Now you've messed up my hair." For some reason, Wendigo suddenly pissed me off royally. I didn't care too much about the guy who got ripped in half to be honest with you, but blood always made me either angry or terrified. I opened my mouth to speak, but some of the blood which was still dripping off my face got into my mouth. I swallowed, and felt a burst of energy.

"What the hell?" I murmured. The other people ran away screaming, so I picked up one of their guns. It was some sort of handgun, and I took a practice shot at Wendigo's good eye. I missed, but I clipped him on the head, which was good enough for me. He swung his arm and hit me into a wall again, knocking the air out of my lungs. "What's with you and throwing people into walls? Is that some kind of new fetish or something?"

"SHUT UP, SHITFACE! I WILL TEAR YOU APART SLOWLY WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU!" he roared.

"Anger issues, dude. Get a therapist." That seemed to piss him off more, as he shot ice at both me and Gwyn. She moved in front of me to block the ice spear. Thank god for Ice immunity. I ran to one side, and Gwyn ran to the other. We both shot at him, me with a gun and her with fireballs. He kept swinging at us, always missing due to his blood loss and seared limbs. Every once in awhile, he would shoot spears of ice in a ring around him, most of the time hitting me. Those damned things move fast, what can I say? I'm pretty sure one time he let out a toxic fart, because Gwyn told me not to breath in as this dark purple colored gas spread through the room. The Wendigo looked really worn out, and I stood behind him. His focus was on Gwyn, so I took a free shot at his head. The gun made a loud bang, but nothing happened. Did I miss? I tried again, but it was jammed.

"Dammit!" I said, throwing the thing to the ground. It misfired, and shot me through the leg. I screamed in pain, vaguely hearing Gwyn's voice shout my name. My vision swam, but I thought that I saw Wendigo turning and leering at me. I also thought that I saw a hot lady in a bunny outfit standing above me, but I doubt that part was real. Who knew getting shot made you hallucinate? The pain was intense, and I'm pretty sure that I blacked out for a second or two because one second, I was on the ground, and the next Wendigo had a hold of my arms.

"Time for the ripping, shit face!" he said in a quiet voice. And by quiet, I mean not as booming as usual. I'm pretty sure that everyone could still hear him, but that's beside the point. He started pulling on my arms, and I blacked out.

* * *

_Overview halt_

_Vital signs: Critical_

_Danger level: Critical_

_Subject 04 KAIN SUTHERLAND approaching levels of blood loss too severe to recover from._

_Injury sustained: Gunshot_

_Slowing heart rate: Complete_

_Rerouting blood vessels: Complete_

_Overview restart? Yes_

_Restarting Overview: Initializing_

_Overview begin_

_=Why do I have to interfere this early on?=_

* * *

I woke up in a hospital cot, my leg numbed to the world. I try to sit up, and a wave of nausea washes over me. I see faces hovering over me, but it's too blurry for me to see anything. My vision becomes clear again, and I see Gwyn, some woman that I've never seen before (most likely a nurse,) and a woman in a bunny outfit. Wait a minute...

"So you weren't a hallucination." I said, looking at her. Her eyes were blue and her hair was blonde, not something that you see commonly in Japan these days. Scratch that, I think Nozomi was blonde. Well, either way it's not too common.

"What?" she asked, her voice clear and comforting.

"I... after I got shot, I saw a bunny girl standing between me and the Wendigo. I thought it was a hallucination from pain, but apparently you're real. Why'd you do it?"

"Who wouldn't try to protect someone in danger?"

"Oh I dunno, practically everyone else here minus you, Gwyn and myself. Scratch that, just you and Gwyn. What's your name actually?"

"It's Yuka." she said. "And I guess that you have a good point with that." she avoided my question, but I assume that it doesn't matter too much.

"So what happened to the Wendigo?" I asked Gwyn, who had returned to her human form.

"He let out a screech just before the killing blow that he claimed would bring his brethren upon us." she said. "So far there's no proof of that statement." There was a loud, bestial roar from outside, and we all looked at each other.

"Looks like we spoke too soon." I said. I tried to stand, but the nurse pushed me down.

"I refuse to let you walk. Your leg is in bad shape already, and if you try moving it any more, you'll probably lose it for good." she said.

"Can I get crutches then?" I asked with an annoyed tone. "I need to tell these people that they have two options. One, stay here and die a horrible painful death, or two, which is to escape from here and let the Ashura-Kai handle it. Speaking of which, can you go and send a message to them, Yuka?"

"Already done." she said.

After considering my proposal for a moment, the nurse spoke up. "Fine. But one sign of trouble and you come straight back here." We walked out, and saw everyone sitting around quietly, anxious looks on their faces.

"Will we be alright?" someone asked.

"I honestly have no idea." I replied. She turned around, disheartened. "Here that everyone? I have no clue if we're gonna live or die. All I know is that we have options, and only two of them. Option number one, we stay here and die horrible, painful deaths. Option two, we escape through the back way and hold out for a few days while the Ashura-Kai come and negotiate with the Demons. For option one, raise your hands." No one raised their hand. "Alright, those for option two?" a unanimous vote. "It's great to see that we all like living. Now, no doubt that the Ashura-Kai are on their way over this instant, but we need to stall for as much time as possible. How we'll do that, I don't quite know."

As if on cue, someone came barreling down the stairs from outside, screaming something unintelligible.

"Calm down man. What's up?" I asked.

"They... want... our leader." he said, panting. "Nego... negotiations."

"I see. I'll head up soon then." I said. "Did they say they wanted to see me alone?" he shook his head and I nodded. "Alright. I'll take Gwyn, Yuka and... this nurse who's name I don't know." I said, starting to move.

"Who the hell made you leader?" someone asked.

"Who all ran away like pansies when the going got tough?" I replied. "No answer? Exactly. If one of you people want to wear the crown of thorns, feel free too. Then you all get to make the hard decisions of how to either save or condemn all of these here people."

The person who asked looked away with a hopeless look on his face.

"No worries. I'll be back shortly with news about what's gonna happen. Hopefully they're more reasonable than their dead friend here." I said, gesturing to the corpse of the Wendigo that was still on the ground. "If you here the sounds of a fight, then run for the back exit. We'll hold them off long enough for you all to escape." I looked at my three companions. "Are we ready?"

They all nodded.

"Let's do this then." I took my first step towards the exit, and steeled myself for a fight.

* * *

Hello there, my dear readers. This is Carmine speaking, as you all probably know. I apologize for the wait, *insert usual excuse here.* For those who don't know my usual excuse, it's school, other writing, and video games. To those people, I say go read this from the beginning! (that and my other fanfic, A Future of Darkness in the Fire Emblem section.) This is totally not blatant advertising... Anyways, I know that you all don't expect much already, but after Saturday, October 12th don't expect a lot from me for about a month or so. If you don't know what's happening on that day and you own a 3DS, shame on you. It's POKEMON X AND Y! *Gets on the hype train and drives off*

-Carmine

(P.S. I don't really shun you if you don't know about it, there are plenty of legitiment reasons for you to not know about it. Don't ask me any, but I know they exist. Probably.)


End file.
